ANA Marketing Musings

Q&A with Joe Tripodi (CMO, Allstate)

As the ANA’s Annual Conference: Masters of Marketing approaches, I would like to share Joe Tripodi’s (CMO, Allstate) thoughts with you on strategic marketing. Please find his comments below.

1. Joe, your presentation is titled, “Strategic Marketing for Breakthrough Results.” What points can you share from your experience that contributes to building a successful brand and generating outstanding results?

What has worked historically will not work going forward. Marketing is evolving at an ever-increasing pace. In today’s world, the consumer has the upper hand. They can dictate the experience. Success for marketers now hinges on the ability to connect with consumers at an emotional level.

At Allstate, we’re changing the way we interact with consumers. Our marketing mix is evolving dramatically, away from mass media toward new media and experiences with much higher relevance for consumers. We’re evolving rapidly. Marketers need to realize there will never be another panacea or “Holy Grail” like Network TV. We’re seeing the slow death of that medium and marketers need to get out of the headlights and change. Try new approaches and learn. Firms that break out of their corporate comfort zone will lead the way.

2. What advice do you have for marketers at other companies who are facing similar challenges that you face – both in revitalizing brands and creating new ones?

Companies are facing dramatic changes in the consumer landscape. You all know about these: the fragmentation of consumer mindshare, disintermediation by technology, the multi-culturism of our society, the migration to a virtual, direct shopping environment, and an increasing governmental oversight and attention to consumer privacy.

To be successful, marketers must confront these issues and go beyond customer loyalty. They must cultivate brand advocates. By doing this, a marketer will dramatically expand their sales force and marketing investment through word-of-mouth and referrals.

At Allstate, we’re focused on changing the experience our customers have with the brand across the entire business system. We’ve established a dedicated team led by senior management with employees from across the organization. Our goal is to move customers from an “inactive” or “reactive” relationship that is primarily transaction-oriented, to a new experience that is highly interactive. For Allstate customers, this means relationships that go beyond the monthly bill, an occasional conversation with your agent and the one-time claim event. It means having an on-going dialogue with the organization and your agent. In the food service industry, it’s like going from a fast food restaurant to having your own personal chef.

This change or “re-staging” of the Allstate brand will be challenging, but in an increasingly commoditized, undifferentiated, and competitive insurance environment, it is necessary.

3. Can you provide us with insight on how you have managed to successfully balance a portfolio of brands?

I’ve been fortunate to work with super brands like MasterCard and Allstate. With these brands, marketers are forced to prioritize program investments toward geographies with the greatest growth opportunity. Program managers concentrate on better aligning the message, media and customer segment to maximize effectiveness.

At Seagram’s, we managed a portfolio with hundreds of brands. The challenge here was to focus our efforts on a few core brands with global opportunity. Leaders managing a large portfolio like this must be prepared to make difficult decisions around brands that are not core to the enterprise. Where there are no funds available to support local opportunities, marketers can provide the field with the framework and discipline for them to employ the right tactics for local opportunities. So, even if there are not financial resources, the team is getting the knowledge and processes to manage their brands most effectively.

4. What can attendees expect to gain from your presentation at ANA’s Annual Conference?

In addition to sharing the evolving Allstate story, I will provide a light-hearted look at the “Seven Deadly Sins for CMOs: Mistakes That Can Kill Your Career”. It’s sort of a survival guide for CMOs in this new and challenging environment.

Attendees can expect a provocative and engaging conference providing a broad range of topics focused on the “Good”, the “Bad” and the “Ugly” of Marketing.

Building Brands -- The Client’s Responsibility

On September 16th, the ANA held its annual Agency Relations Forum – an industry gathering to assess the state of the client / agency relationship. Upon reflecting on what I heard, here are the key “takeaways” I gained:

The buck stops with the client.

There should be no equivocation that the client is responsible for all brand and media management decisions. Now this may seem obvious, but how often do we see weak advertising and marketing programs hitting the airwaves, websites and print media. Often, the finger of responsibility gets pointed at the agency. Is it the agency’s fault that bad marketing is being witnessed by millions? Of course not. If a marketer doesn’t like the output of agencies, then it is the client’s responsibility to not show it. Importantly, it is the client’s responsibility to work with the agency to get it right so that it meets their brand marketing objectives. Often we hear about long-term agency partners under review or agencies dismissed after brief tenures. I suspect that some of those may be related to bad agency management decisions by the client.

Is the Client properly focused?

The number one objective for both the client and the agency is getting the right marketing and media campaigns that effectively build brands. If that doesn’t happen, then all of the other effort around process, transparency, agency compensation, the role of the procurement departments, margin management and personality management doesn’t matter at all. Sure, those are all important. We certainly need to make lots of progress in those arenas. But let’s be sure that we don’t shift our focus so much that our eye comes off the “brand-building ball”. Often, I suspect it does. And often, I think it creates dysfunctional behavior for both the client and the agency that results in sub-optimal brand-building.

Despite these concerns, we are learning. And, we are obviously making some tangible progress. Overall, the client/agency relationship is in reasonably good shape. In the latest ANA survey, released at the event, 93% of members say that agencies are meeting or exceeding expectations. That says there is a substantial undercurrent of satisfaction – and that’s a very good sign. We just need to make sure that this progress becomes institutionalized – and that, we clients, keep making better decisions to best leverage our valued agency friends and partners.

Q&A with Jim Stengel (CMO, Procter & Gamble)

Jim Stengel, Global Marketing Officer at Procter & Gamble, will be the headline speaker at this year’s ANA Annual conference: Masters of Marketing. Mr. Stengel’s presentation titled, Leadership for Building Successful Brands, will focus on P&G’s leadership in energizing their mature brands and creating new ones that resonate with today’s consumers. I recently spoke with Jim and we discussed his participation at the upcoming conference.

1. Jim, what points can you share from your experience at P&G that contribute in building a successful brand?

We are at our best when we are engaging consumers at times and places that are important in their lives, reaching out to them on their terms in a permission-based way. We’ve learned a great deal about creating experiences that reinforce our brands’ equity with non-traditional marketing approaches.

For example, creating unique in-store experiences for beauty brands like SK-II skin care and Pantene hair care; reaching parents at milestones in their baby’s development; sampling our home care products with soon-to-be newlyweds applying for their marriage license. And certainly the online space is opening new doors for us, helping to create an innovative way of interacting with our consumers through a two-way dialogue that provides them access to us, and a way for them to set guidelines on how they would like to receive information about our products.

We have created a mantra of sorts in putting the consumer at the center of all we do. This is not something new for our company as we’ve had a strong consumer focus for more than 165 years. But when we really, really think about what it means and how choices are made with the consumer in mind, this results in more focused brands, more aspirational brands, more broadly-defined brands and it inspires our people to understand that their business plays a role in the life of the consumer.

2. What advice do you have for marketers at other companies who are facing similar challenges that you face – both in revitalizing brands and creating new ones?

Keeping the consumer at the center of the decision-making process is key to identifying solutions to the challenges all of us face in a world that is increasingly more fragmented due to the multiple ways media is consumed. If you can successfully determine where your consumer is spending his/her time, you can appropriately tailor messages to reach them in the most effective way.

Consumer-centric marketing has no assumptions. It begins with identifying who is your consumer and determining what is unique and different about him/her. A simple idea executed extremely well.

Getting to know your individual brand consumer and what influences his/her decisions, through a consumer-driven approach that is deeper and more personal provides you the insight to make deliberate choices about how best to reach him/her. This insight holds true regardless if you are introducing a new product or refreshing an established brand. Keeping the interests of the consumer in mind provides the compass to set the right direction for a brand.

3. Can you provide us with insight on how you have managed to successfully balance a diverse portfolio of brands?

Each brand has a unique story to tell, but all of the brands have something to learn from one another. By creating a “learning” culture that encourages open sharing of successes as well as opportunities, we have been able to successfully identify and reapply programs across regions and across business units. This has led to a greater acceptance for testing and experimentation of new marketing models as we seek to develop more insightful ways to engage with consumers.

4. Based on your experience, what can attendees expect to gain from attending the Annual Conference – and what are you most looking forward to this year?

Inspiration, ideas, camaraderie, and a little sunburn. The ANA annual conference is a marketing "fitness spa" – you exercise old muscles you have not used in a while, and you discover new muscles during an energizing marketing workout. This is one of the premier industry events of the year, and it always offers surprise, thought provoking challenges and great opportunities to make new industry connections.

Q&A with Jerri DeVard (SVP, Verizon)

As I continue my conversations with ANA Annual Conference speakers, please find Jerri DeVard’s (SVP, Verizon) comments below on the impact of technology on brand building.

Jerri, your presentation at the upcoming ANA Annual Conference: Masters of Marketing is titled “Technology, the Backbone of Brand Building.”  What points can you share from your experience that contribute to building a successful brand?

Boiling it down, technology (defined by Encyclopedia Britannica) is the application of scientific knowledge to the practical aims of human life. Technology is never an end in and of itself, but how science can be applied to make life better, simpler or easier.

The sweet spot for the customer is the intersection of the brand and the technologies that enable a superior experience--regardless of the brand or the technology. For financial services, its an easy way to navigate ATM machines or a seamless and easy online banking experience; for a retailer, its the customers ability to engage and have their transactions recognized regardless of which channel they are using (catalog, in store or online), for a packaged goods marketer, its delivering your product to the customer how and when they want it.

For Verizon, it’s about taking the most advanced technology and building a network that will deliver better internet, communications and entertainment experiences for our customers--giving them more of what they want. And making sure that we leverage the technology to ensure that we deliver superior service.

The needs stay the same, technology raises the expectations of a brands' ability to deliver. Stay true to what your brands mean to your customers--the emotional connection that they have with you--and use technology as the great enhancer and ultimate enabler to that experience.

What advice do you have for marketers at other companies who are facing similar challenges that you face – both in revitalizing brands and creating new ones?

Know your customers and the equities of your brand that matter to them. When revitalizing, know why you mean something to them in the first place, stay true to it while you find fresh and new ways to increase your relevance. At the foundation, brands are revitalized with new products and applications that deliver a core customer need, perhaps one that delights and is unexpected.

Delivering against any promise that you make is critical--don't make it, if you can't deliver. Sears saw the potential of extending the core equities of the brand to better meet the needs of their female customers. A promise of a "softer side" of Sears was compelling, but the in-store experience didn't live up to the promise. In terms of creating new brands--be thoughtful. What is this new brand trying to accomplish, what place does it take in the life of the customer?

Can you provide us with insight on how you have managed to successfully balance Verizon’s portfolio of brands?

Verizon has three strong business units, broadband, wireless and Information Services. These businesses sit under the Master Verizon brand and bring all of the trust and reliability that customers have come to look to us for. As a Master brand, our challenge is keeping the brand fresh and relevant to meet the needs of all the new products that we're bringing to market.

What do you think attendees can expect to gain from attending the ANA Annual Conference – and what are you most looking forward to this year.

I always think that this conference, in addition to providing some great new insights, provides the opportunity for all of us to take pause and question and challenge the way we're doing things. On the flip side, I'm always heartened when I leave a conference of my esteemed colleagues and feel confident and good about all the things we're doing--it can be very validating.